{Soft-Baked} Reese’s Cup-Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookies

My blogger friends are a damn hard bunch to keep up with.

As a blogger, I’m always trying to be this Martha-esque perfectionist, always baking the perfect cookies, frosting the perfect cupcakes and baking the fudgiest brownies.

Of course I’d love for everyone to flock to me, grovel at my painted toes and get all Wayne’s World on me: “we’re not worthy!!” and praise my culinary creative genius.

Okay, so I totally would not want that because the idea of people–strangers–near my feet is freaky. Also, I’m not good with crowds. And while I can take a compliment gracefully, I really dislike overcomplimenters. You know, the ones that like won’tstop and after awhile it sounds totally awkward and canned? Blah.

But hopefully, you get what I mean. It’s a tough cookie-eat-cookie world I blog in. One where your idea can be posted before you have a chance to because eventually, we’re all going to have our own version of something-stuffed-with-something-awesome. One where you’ll be totally braindead on a certain ingredient and someone else will post something SOINSANELY(infuriatingly)GENIUS that you want to bang your head against a wall repeatedly (oh, that’s not you? Nevermind then, carry on…)

And while I try to aim to please, some days, I just can’t freaking think of anything fascinating that A) hasn’t been done before, B) hasn’t been posted recently on another blog, or C) just, uh, anything. Because I’m human and my brain likes farting a lot. Sorry.

Enter these cookies. The idea, of course, is nothing new, but they’re absolutely marvelous and they begged to be shared with you, my dearest bloggy friends. And if you trust me to bring you exciting, innovative treats that also taste incrediballs, you can bet your booty that the average-joe, plain-jane looking stuff I’ll bring you will be just as outrageously delish.

Pinky swear–it’s what friends do.

{Soft-Baked} Reese’s Cup-Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookies *cookie base recipe adapted slightly from THIS recipe at Sally’s Baking Addiction

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter*
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 & 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
About 24 mini Reese’s cups, unwrapped
Additional white sugar, for rolling

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Mix in the peanut butter, eggs and vanilla until incorporated. Lastly, slowly add in the baking soda and flour gradually. Do not overmix the dough. Cover and let chill for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone liners or lightly mist with cooking spray.
3. Scoop out heaping Tablespoonfuls of dough into your palm. Press a PB cup in the center of the dough ball, then enclose the PB cup with the dough. Roll the dough ball in sugar, then place on the baking sheets. Space dough about 1″ apart from one another.
4. Bake cookies for approx. 8-10 minutes until lightly golden. Cookies will look super soft and may look undone; that’s what you want.
5. Allow cookies to cool on the pan approx. 5-10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to finish cooling. Store leftover cookies airtight, at room temperature, up to 2-3 days… if they make it.
**Note: If you’re a smooth operator, feel free to use 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter in lieu of the crunchy.**

While PB cookies are one of my favorites, I loved that these were soft-baked, meaning they were a lot puffier, softer (duh) and chewy than normal crunchier-baked PB cookies. I liked the additional crunch + texture from the chunky peanut butter, and the peanut butter cup surprise in the middle was gooey and unexpected. They’re totally not your average PB cookie!

Enjoy!!

xo, Hayley